Bittersweet Ride in Portland

My bike rides are usually pleasant. I'm doing something that I love while managing to get in some much needed exercise in my semi-old age. Riding around in a new city is even better because everything is new because you haven't seen it before. This was pretty much the case when I had the chance to ride around Portland, Oregon recently. I rented one of those #Nike BikeTown city bikes and had a wonderful time seeing parts of the city up close.

But I did say in my title of this blog that this was a bittersweet ride and let me explain that. I was in Oregon with my wife to visit my son who's going to school there, and to move in my daughter at a different college to start her freshman year. It's been awhile since we have seen our son because he stayed in Portland over the summer to take summer school classes. Seeing him again made me realize how much I missed seeing him when he was home doing distance learning during the pandemic. He drives me absolutely nuts sometimes but now that he's older, I feel like we can talk more about other kinds of stuff. We were able to also meet his girlfriend which was nice. They seem like a good match for each other and I'm happy for them both. I met my wife in college and we've been together now for what, 26 years married and 31 years total? While it was really nice spending time with him, our time was short lived as we also had to get my youngest into her dorm so that she could start her own college career. That's where it got a little sad for me. During the ride, I decided to talk about why we were in Portland and how I was going to miss seeing her as well everyday. While she is no baby, she's the baby of the family being the youngest and we've had a nice 18 years with her at home. She gave us very little drama, as her siblings, and I'm going to miss going on coffee runs to our favorite coffee spots. I used the ride to sort of express how I was feeling, now that we have sort of an empty nest at home. I say sort of because my oldest is living at home with us while she's working in her job. While I was a little sad thinking about all of this, the ride was still a good one. There is just something about getting out in the fresh air and exploring a new city that is just plain fun.

You can check out the video on my YouTube Channel if you are interested in seeing how my ride went. It was interesting to say the least!